Summer Alpine Kit List

This is the clothing and equipment I’d expect to be wearing and carrying for classic Summer Alpine mountaineering days with glacier travel. I'd use this for peaks from the valley in a day or with a stay at an Alpine hut up to about AD. I’ve listed the actual pieces I own to give an idea of weights and fabrics. If you want to travel light and fast you need to take the bare minimum without cutting your margin of safety too fine and these decisions should be made on a route by route basis. With a good forecast I’d almost always leave the waterproof trousers behind for example. Let me know if there’s anything obvious I’ve missed off!

Clothing Wearing

B2/3 boots - Scarpa Freney XT with orthotic insoles

Technical socks - X Socks Trek Exped

Gaiters (optional) – Outdoor Research Verglas

Baselayer bottoms (optional on summit day) – Trek Mates Coolmax

Lightweight softshell trousers - Montane Terra Pant

Long-sleeve baselayer – Rab Aeon

Hooded softshell jacket – Rab Vapor Rise

Lightweight gloves – Black Diamond powerstretch

Cat 3/4 sunglasses – Decathlon Cat 4 with keeper cord

Neck protection – Buff

Sun hat – Outdoor Research folding baseball cap

Altimeter watch – Suunto Ambit


Clothing In the Pack

Lightweight waterproof jacket – Rab Demand Smock

Lightweight waterproof trousers (optional) – Marmot Precip

Lightweight insulated jacket – Rab Microlight Alpine

Spare gloves

Hat – Mountain Equipment beanie


Personal Equipment

Rucksack – Alpkit Gordon 20l/25l, axe carrying straps added

Headtorch – Alpkit Gamma

Spare headtorch – Black Diamond Ion

C2 crampons – Grivel G12 with crampon bag

Walking axe – Black Diamond Raven With Grip 55cm, leash in pack

Walking poles – Black Diamond Trail Ergo with snow baskets

Harness – Arc’Teryx I340a

Belay device – Black Diamond ATC Guide on DMM Sentinel Locksafe

Abseil prussik

Crevasse rescue kit – 1 x Black Diamond 18cm Turbo Express Ice Screw, 3 x DMM Shadow screwgates, 2 x DMM Spectre 2 Wiregates, 2 x Mammut 120cm 8mm slings, Wild Country Ropeman 3, Petzl Tibloc, 60cm prussik

Camera – Canon G12, GoPro HD Hero 2

Compass

Mobile phone

Money

Asthma inhaler

Factor 50 sun tan lotion

Lip balm/Vaseline

Insurance details

Silk sleeping bag liner (if staying in a hut)

Water – 2 x 1l Platypus bladders (I’d normally hydrate before setting off and carry 1.5l for a summit day), switch one for 1l Nalgene bottle if boiling water

Energy gels - SIS

Food

Knife – Petzl Spatha


Shared Equipment

Rope – Mammut Serenity 50m

First aid kit – Finger tape, plasters, painkillers

Spare sunglasses

Guidebook  (take photos as backup)

Map (take photos as backup)

***

For more technical routes I’d start with the base list above and add the equipment I’d expect to need on the route. For rock routes, a half rope, light rock rack and a supply of ab tat would go in. For more ice routes I’d swap the walking axe for a pair of technical tools and add in more ice screws. I’d always be packing a helmet too if the ground is getting steeper.

I’ve not done an Alpine bivvy before but this is the kit I’ll be packing for our forthcoming trip. The rationale is if we’re planning to bivvy we might as well do so in relative comfort. If we don’t take bivvy kit we keep climbing!

Personal Equipment

Rucksack – Marmot Centaur 38, back panel removed

Sleeping bag – Alpkit Pipedream 400

Bivvy bag – Alpkit Hunka

Sleeping mat – Thermarest Z Lite, 2 x sections cut off so mat fits in back of rucksack

Spare pair of socks to sleep in

Pee bottle!


Shared Equipment

Stove – Jetboil Sol Ti

Cooling implements – Jetboil plastic cutlery

Second mug – Alpkit MyTi Mug, Tiffoon

Food

Coffee

Spare lighers, waterproof matches

Swiss Alps part 5 - Much peril on the Nadelhorn

The plan for Thursday was some rock climbing on the Jegihorn but morning arrived with clouds and intermittent rain so that plan got shelved. Friday's forecast looked more promising so we made the decision to walk into a hut and do a 4000m peak on the Friday. After much eating and drinking of coffee we decided to walk up to the Mischabel hut and do the North-East ridge on the Nadelhorn, 4327m - our highest peak yet.

We set off up to the hut in the afternoon, according to the guidebook it had one of the harder approaches with some steep zig-zagging paths followed by steep scrambling up a rocky rib up to 3340m. The guide didn't lie, the paths were both steep and torturous, the scrambling seemed to go on forever with the rain sucking all the fun out of it. I really started to feel the affects of the altitude which was pretty strange given I'd been to 4000m the day before - strange stuff, altitude. I was moving very slowly and feeling tired, sick and dizzy. We eventually arrived at the hut, had a really nice dinner, then went to bed with an 0330 alarm call.

Hut dining room:



We were up and out by 0420, as part of a line of headtorches picking it's way up the rock rib behind the hut. It had been snowing all night so we were climbing snow-covered rocks, with the shear quantity of snow a cause for concern. We arrived at the point we were to drop onto the glacier just as dawn started to break. The first inky blue light revealed another perfect cloud inversion at 2500m with all the snow-capped peaks popping though the cloud sea. So beautiful.

We crossed the glacier and zig-zagged up the opposite slope to reach a col called the Nadeljoch - everything in the Alps has a name! In procession we made our way up onto the ridge that leads to the summit of the Nadelhorn. The guidebook grades the route PD and says that the ridge starts as snow but becomes rockier as it narrows and is good, solid rock by the summit. Unfortunately the ridge was snow all the way to the top. About a metre of unconsolidated powder which made the going quite tricky - getting firm footholds was tricky and you couldn't risk falling through the cornice on one side or sliding down the steep slope on the other. Careful precise footwork was required as James and I progressed up the ridge and passed the magical 4000m mark on my altimeter watch.

On a couple of occasions I plunged my ice axe through the cornice which isn't a nice sensation - when you remove it you can see the glacier far below through the round hole. Scary stuff. There was a short period when the wind started gusting around us, filling the tracks in and blinding us with spindrift. That really scared me and made me aware of how exposed we were on that high ridge, luckily the wind didn't persist else I'd have been suggesting we turned back.

At two points the snow ridge reared up in angle and we had to drop down slightly to pass rock towers on the right. The snow was really dodgy here - thin power on hard ice. We really struggled to get good foot placements and stay stable. We were roped together without runners so a fall from either one of us would pull the other off if they couldn't arrest it. Luckily that didn't happen but we were both concerned about coming back down once the sun had softened the snow further. We let a couple or continental teams pass us on the way up and as we neared the summit and ridge had a final steep snow step everyone bunched together in a traffic jam as people who'd already been to the summit were trying to pass teams trying to ascent very steep, slidey snow. It felt really dangerous, no one had any anchors and the continentals don't really do queueing so everyone ends up trying to climb the same patch at the same time. I was starting to worry that we were climbing ourselves into a bad situation that could only get worse. James was having the same thoughts, but in this melee of climbers and guides all thrashing around to get to the summit we kinda did what everyone else did and went on. James did a fine lead of that treturous final snow slope and found a natural rock anchor for us to hang ourselves on and wait for our turn on the summit pinnacle.

We touched the summit cross exactly four hours after leaving the hut so we made guidebook time despite the clusterfuck on the ridge. We snapped a couple of pictures (I have a really special pic of the Matterhorn with a cloud inversion around it on the camera) then started heading down, both of us feeling really uncomfortable with our situation and wanting off the thing.

The snow had got worse with the traffic and the sun so we belayed each other down off of rock anchors for some additional security. We got to the really dodgy snow slope, watched the continentals controlled-falling down it, and decided we couldn't accept that risk. Utter lunatics! We found an appropriate rock and abbed down 25m to where the snow was better. We then gingerly made our way down the melting ridge, falling behind everyone else but maximising our own safety. James was in front and twice the snow beneath him collapsed and I had to hold him while he tried to arrest. It had become really risky but we could do was head down as safely as we could. As we passed the final tower we started to feel a little more in control as the slopes weren't as steep. The proximity of the track to the cornice was really concerning but the track had consolidated somewhat so that was a safer bet than digging our own trench further down.

We passed two teams on the way down who were heading up to the summit at around 1000 - that's really, really late to be heading to the summit, particularly given the snow conditions. We did warn them to be careful, fingers crossed they got up and down safely as it would be so easy to have a serious accident up there.

Eventually get got down off the ridge and onto the glacier and could relax a little and sort ourselves out. We weren't out of harms way yet though as we had to cross a wet glacier on a hot day. On the way across the Nadelhorn face started avalanching - only small ones caused by the rocks heating and shedding snow and no immediate threat to us but it really hammered home how dangerous it can be in less than idea conditions.

We hot-footed it down to the hut, collected the few things we'd left there and headed on back down to the valley; tired, dehydrated and glad that it was over. Once we'd got below the snowline the scrambling on the ridge became rather fun. Sliding down the cables and clambering down the iron rungs was like an adventure playground. The steep paths afterwards shut my knees down completely though - they've been pretty good all week but this epic decent from 4300m to 1560m was the final straw and it took me hours to slowly hobble downhill and back to the campsite.

I've got mixed feelings about the day: it's great to have set an altitude high point, James and I worked really well as a team in testing situations and I took some amazing photos. The level of risk wasn't acceptable to me though, things could have easily gone horribly wrong. I'm not sure whether pressing to the summit was a good idea or not. There's definitely technical skills I could do with refining - we probably could have made better use of natural anchors. Unconsolidated snow is a bitch however you look at it, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with ascending and descending it the continental way - I've got too much to live for!

We're going to start the journey home tomorrow so our week of Alpinism is now over. I definitely feel like a Alpinist now, I'm probably fitter than I've ever been in my life, I've learnt new and refined existing mountain skills and I've seen some amazing scenery. Not a bad ticklist for a week either. =o)

Monte Moropass 2985m
Joderhorn 3037m, North-West face
Allallinhorn 4027m, up Hohlaubgrat AD, down West-North-West ridge F
Weismeiss 4023m, North-West flank and South-West ridge PD
Nadelhorn 4327m, North-East ridge PD (AD at least given conditions)



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Swiss Alps part 3 - Weismeiss in a day!

Tuesday became an official rest day after the effort expended on the Allalinhorn. Most of the day was spent relaxing around the campsite eating and drinking coffee. Late afternoon we went to check out the sport climbing in the gorge behind the campsite. First stop the lower gorge which had lots of impressive looking routes in the 7's but only a couple of easier ones which we quickly dispatched. The routes were pretty uninspiring and the rock both loose and polished so we decamped and wandered up to the upper gorge near Saas Fee. Here there were a couple of really easy slabby routes on solid rock but we continued along to the harder ones. The bolting was bizarre - seemingly thrown at the rock at random and the bolts forming lines almost by chance. James set off on something graded V+ according to the writing on the wall. It looked pretty cool: stepped overhangs covered in jugs. Unfortunately someone hadn't extended the bolting past bolt two; or more likely the rock above had all fallen down as James had to gingerly retreat sideways from a completely detached block the size of a fridge.

We wandered along in search of more solid rock and I got on something graded VI with a cool looking overhang. The overhand turned out to be only possible by turning it on the right and meandering into the adjacent route - James had to do that after I wore myself out trying to climb tue overhang direct without any holds. Grateful for avoiding death through rockfall and heartily reminded that low grade sport climbing is generally shit, we went and had a barbecue instead.

Wednesday morning we got the first cablecar up to Housass at 3200m, 2hrs 50min later we were stood on the summit of the Weismeiss, our second 4000m peak. That's well under the guidebook time of 3-4hrs so we were going really well - we overtook half a dozen continental teams on the way up! Unfortunately the weather came in after an hour or so on the mountain and we spent the rest of the day in thick cloud. No nice views from the summit, just a general understanding that where we were stood was slightly higher than everywhere else. The climb itself was fairly mundane but we had to travel through some pretty complex glaciated terrain to get there and that was the highlight for me - lots of dangerous seracs, crevasses and snow bridges to negotiate. We went super light with the gear - I just took a 20l Alpkit Gourdon rucksack, which definitely helped up race up the thing. Light is right!

We got back to the cablecar station in 2hrs and were back at the campsite having lunch by 1300 and spent the afternoon lazing in the sun (Alpine weather changes fast, it was snowing when we got off the glacier) eating biscuits and enjoying a celebrationary beer. It felt almost too easy climbing that mountain, we're definitely ready for something bigger and harder at the end of the week. Tomorrow I think we're going up the Jaggerhorn with a few of our friends here - we're going to do a rock route to the summit while they do the via ferrata. Fri/Sat we'll hopefully do our final, as yet undecided, 4000m peak.

Didn't take any phone pics today but got some amazing shots on the camera. =o)


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Swiss Alps part 2 - Allalinhorn success!

On Sunday we walked up to Saas Fee from the campsite in Saas Grund along the 13 chapels path - most of the chapels being slightly underwhelming white boxes with religious dolls in them! Things got a little confusing and expensive when booking our cablecar tickets but, a lot lighter on the cash front, we were deposited at 2567m at the Plattgen station. We then had a beautiful 2hr walk around the ramparts of Mittelhorn and Eddiger, up towards the Britainnia hut perched on a splendid ridge with stunning views across the Michabel chain. The day was cold and windy but bright and sunny with great views. It was fantastic looking across at the mountain in the distance we climbed yesterday.



We arrived at the hut and I dispensed James to work though the language barrier and hand over more large sums of money. Uplift and hut fees totalled a staggering £100 per person! Stupid exchange rate! =o( We took a wander up to a viewing point just above the hut to take in the utterly breathtaking 360 degree view of the snow plastered 4000m giants of the Alps with clouds boiling over the top of them. I've never been somewhere so beautiful and so humbling, pisses all over those twee beaches and warm seas that people get all excited about!

Looking up at the Allalinhorn and tracing out the AD route with 1000m of height gain we'd be starring at 0400 the following morning, I felt pretty scared and intimidated. I know it's one of the easiest 4000ers but from where I sat it looked bloody big, bloody steep and bloody dangerous. "That's just the foreshortening", James told me. I hoped he was right.




We were woken for breakfast at 0345, forced down some muesli and a couple of cups of coffee, and were out on the glacier shortly after 0400. I could just make out the mountains around us in the eerie moonlight. Slowly but surely we edged up the glacier, avoiding crevasses, while the sun started to rise and we were treated to the full palate of colours in an Alpine dawn. There was a complete cloud inversion across the Saas valley below with the snowy peaks of mountains poking through like islands in a sea of clouds as far as the eye could see.

After a couple of hours we crossed the bergshrund and started climbing the ridge proper. Close up it wasn't as steep as from a distance but it seemed to go on forever - over 3k of slogging up and down 50 degree snow! The night sleeping at 3000m had sorted my acclimatisation right out and I felt fit and strong - even my left knee which was painful when we started wasn't bothering me. We dropped over the top of a snow dome at 3500m then the ridge reared up steep and narrow to the 30m rock band we'd need to climb just below the summit. By now my legs were really hurting from all the effort of gaining hight, and I was getting more and more scared by my surroundings. I can't really describe how beautiful everything was, apart from James, but being on that steep snow ridge with huge drops either side was very intimidating. We were short roping so if one of of slipped and fell and wasn't able to arrest and stick, the other would have a second to arrest both of us or we'd both check out. It's all in the footwork, you can't really afford to make a mistake. Scary stuff, but I was confident in my crampon work and James was looking good so I had to rationalise and focus on making the summit.

Eventually we made it to the bottom of the rock band around 0930, the two teams in front of us were working their way up it and there were a number of parties further down the ridge behind us. In good conditions this band is dry rock and easy climbing, today it was snow, ice, meltwater and general unpleasantness. I got on the lead as I like this sort of thing, but found it more than a little tricky with a single walking axe and wet gloves, could've done with a pair of technical axes!

Shortly after setting off up the rock band everything got complicated with multiple parties trying to climb it at the same time - bloody continentals! I broke it into three short pitches and was more than happy to clip the pitons and pull on the gear to get moving! We finally got to the top and a short snow slope lead onto the summit ridge and the summit cross. The view was breathtaking, and I was so excited to see the Matterhorn on the other side, looking very smart with a covering of snow!




We both got token summit pics, soaked up the view some more then headed down the easy route on the other side of the mountain, down towards the ski area.

From the ski centre at 3200m, we got an underground funicular train down the mountain, then two big cablecars down to Saas Fee. A short (long) walk later and we were back at the campsite, absolutely wasted. So excited to have climbed my first 4000m peak, and by an AD route rather than the F tourist track we used to descend. Rest day tomorrow I think! =oD

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Swiss Alps part 1 - Departure to Joderhorn

The trip didn't get off to the best of starts as I concocted near-terminal manflu two days before we were due to leave. This left me confined to bed, in a retching, mucusy, sweaty mess with zero Alpine psyche. Still Thursday evening arrived, the housewifemobile was shoehorned full of stuff, and James and I headed off down to Dover with James in the pilot seat so I could continue convolescing.

We rolled onto the midnight ferry in good time. It looked like a refugee camp as we wandered around with sleeping people and abandoned children everywhere. We got an unhelpful hour of sleep sat on some stools before we docked at Dunkerque and the roadtrip continued. We drove about an hour through Belgium before finding a service area around 0400 and grabbed some kip in the car.

We set off again around 0900 and drove down through Belgium and into Luxembourg where we paid a luxurious £1 a litre for diesel - winnAr! \o/ Luxembourg is weird - everything's sold in huge quantities: buckets of tobacco, vats of Nuttella!


On we continued, through the rain, down through France and finally over the border into Switzerland.

As we drove down into the mountains we discovered the satnav was taking us onto a surprise car-train which it called a 'ferry' - exciting times!


I can remember riding on this car train when I lived in Switzerland age 8. Out the other side of the mountain it was bright skies and no rain and we drove on down, then up, into the Saas valley where we rendezvoused with Allan, Lillian, Keith and Carol at the campsite. We were treated to a sit-down meal with wine in their enormotent before we shuffled off to bed. A fine end to 12hrs driving!

We got up relatively late on Saturday and drove up to Mattmark dam which is at the top of the Saas valley at 2180m. Forecast wasn't too great so we planned on doing an easy walk up to a col at 2860m to check out a massive gold Madonna statue (religious, not popstar), grab a coffee at the lift station on the other side in Italy, and maybe grab a 3000m peak up from the col depending on the weather. We got up to the statue in a swift 1hr 40m where it was cold, snowing and cloudy, had a really nice coffee in Italy and then went and fought our way up the Joderhorn (3035m) in poor visibility. It was very Scottish!


It's the snowy peak on the left.

Some nice scrambling up snow covered rock to get to the summit. We then retraced our steps to the col and charged on back down to the dam. It was a good seven hour day on the hill and my knees generally felt fine - I was pretty much running down at the end of the day!

Weather was cold last night and the snow level has dropped to around 2500m. It's bright and windy this morning but still freezing cold! It feels like late Autumn! We're going to check the forecast for tomorrow and if all looks good head up to the Britannia hut this afternoon and go do the Alallinhorn tomorrow which would be our first 4000m peak, like evAr! =oD


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Location:ZE Löübinu,Saas-Grund,Switzerland

Day 14/15 - WTF happened last night?!/Homeward bound

The evening panned out like this: we finished climbing at Rocher Cannon aroun 1900, cooked dinner, m0ved the car to the farthest corner of the carpark and set up hammocks just off the carpark in the trees. We were in bed by 2200 and asleep shortly after. James fell out of his car-crash of a hammock almost immediately and slept on the floor instead. Some time between 2300 and 0000 we were woken up by the sounds of a helicopter circling slowly overhead, getting lower and lower. It kept slowly circling for about five mins and the downdraft from the rotors was knocking the hammocks around. It then seemed to fly away for a min, then return even lower and then land in the carpark next to the car, maybe 30m away from our bivvy!

The noise and the wind and the lights was quite terrifying in the middle of this forest at the dead of night. Chris and I had swung out of our hammocks onto the floor and put shoes on, expecting armed police to arrest us any minute for wild camping (which is illegal in Fontainbleau). The helicopter spent maybe five mins on the ground which the searchlight moving around before it just took off and left! It took me ages to get to sleep after that, every light or sound was a perimeter being set up around us! Best guess is they were looking for someone, checked out our car and decided it wasn't the one they were looking for. I'm sure they'd have seen us bivvying on an IR camera and decided not to bother us. Seriously weird!

Friday morning we were up, fed and packed pretty quickly and got in a few hours bouldering before setting off for Calais. I think were were all suffering for the previous days climbing with aching arms and sore tips so we were on the road slightly earlier than we needed to be and we got an earlier ferry back.

We drove up to my house in Rushden for the evening, had chip shops chips for dinner, a few celebrationary beers and enjoyed our first hot showers for weeks. We've not been able to wash for nearly a week so we all felt super clean afterwards! Sleeping on a mattress felt heavenly.

Final totting up of the ledger shows we spent about £180 per person all in for two weeks. Pretty incredible. Bo)

Day 13 - Boulder, boulder, boulder

Woke up early after a cold bivvy and grooved over to Franchard Isatis and worked through a load of blue circuit problems. I flashed everything we tried which was pretty cool.

Drove into Fontainbleau centre for our final food shop at lunchtime then on to Rocher Canon for more fingertip destruction. All was going well until Chris lightly sprained his ankle landing on a root under the mat and I eventually didn't flash something so we retired to lie in the sun for a while. Got on a few more problems late afternoon before our final dinner of pasta with a ratatouille-type vegetable sauce. We're bivvying here tonight and doing a little bouldering in the morning before driving up to Calais. Tomorrow night we'll be sleeping in beds at my house in Rushden! \o/ I'm going to savour my last night in the hammock though - it's freezing in the mornings now but soooooooo comfortable!

O2 have sent me a text notification that I've spent £40 on roaming data services! =o. Hope you've enjoyed reading!


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